'Dear Evan Hansen' And 'Hello, Dolly!' Reign At The 2017 Tony Awards

Michael Aranov accepts the award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play for "Oslo" at the 71st Tony Awards in New York June 11, 2017.

"Dear Evan Hansen" took homeBest Musical, as well as Best Book Of A Musical, Best Original Score and Best Choreography. The 71-year-old star took to the stage to accept her award, speaking about the power of Hello, Dolly! and stating it 'has the ability to lift your spirits in these awful times'.

Spacey, who spent much of the show joking about not being the first choice for the job, got mixed reviews. She said, "This stage has the ability to lift your spirits in this bad, awful times-go see it". This year, the lineup featured Josh Groban, Scarlett Johansson, Kevin Kline, Bette Midler, Orlando Bloom, Glenn Close, Cynthia Nixon, Sara Bareilles, Tommy Tune, Whoopi Goldberg and Anna Kendrick, among others.

Alex Lacamoire is the first person to win Best Orchestrations two years in a row - for "Dear Evan Hansen" this year and "Hamilton" last year - since Doug Besterman in 2001 ("The Producers") and 2002 ("Thoroughly Modern Millie").

After the Tony nominations in May, the smart money must have been on "Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812", which had snapped up a leading 12 nods and looked strong in every category.

Two-time Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey hosted the star-studded 71st annual edition of the biggest night on Broadway, the equivalent of the Academy Awards for U.S. theater. Spacey now plays ruthless politician Frank Underwood in the Netflix series "House of Cards".

She gave a four-minute acceptance speech that forced organisers to play music over the top in an attempt to drive her off stage.

Best new play went to Oslo, directed by Bartlett Sher, Seattle's former Intiman Theatre artistic director.

The musical "Dear Evan Hansen", about a boy who gets caught up in a lie after the death of a classmate, was awarded Best New Musical. "We hoped to write a show where people who were looking for a home would find one".

Australian actress Cate Blanchett and musician Tim Minchin both missed out on awards for their roles in Platonov and Groundhog Day respectively. For those of you who aren't theater nerds, I'll explain a bit about what an opening number is meant to do.

Christopher Ashley won Best Direction of a Musical for Come From Away.